The dangerous track in Vancouver continues to take its toll - medal hopes of Russia's bobsleigh quartet led by Alexander Zubkov came to an abrupt end in the ill-fated Curve 13 during the first heat.
The 2006 Turin silver medalist in four-man bob failed to negotiate the dangerous curve, nicknamed "50-50" for the odds of crashing there. The Russian quartet seemed uninjured as they left the bob.
The Team 2 (Zubkov, Philipp Egorov, Petr Moiseev and Dmitry Trunenkov) showed the time of 52.52 seconds in the first heat and were ranked 21st, 1.63 seconds behind the leaders.
Nikita Muzyrya, who heads Russia's bobsleigh federation, said the crash was caused by a malfunction in the sled's steering system, not by the pilot's error.
"There was a malfunction in the steering system: first a steering cable broke, then, on Curve 11, a [steering] handle came off. On Curve 13 the sled flipped over,” he told the Rossiya 2 TV channel.
Earlier this week, Zubkov was promoted to the third place and subsequently won the bronze medal in two-man bob after a Canadian duet of Lyndon Rush and Lascelles Brown crashed in that dangerous stretch.
The Olympic track has aroused multiple questions over its safety after the death of Georgian luger Nodar Kumaritashvili. Despite some improvements introduced after the incident, crashes marred almost every training session and competition on the ill-fated track.
Bobsledders from Liechtenstein, the Netherlands, Australia and Switzerland announced their withdrawal from the four-man competitions due to injuries and lack of confidence.
The winner, showing the best combined times in four heats, will be determined early on Saturday.
The U.S. team of Steven Holcomb leads after the first run, followed by Canada's Lyndon Rush and Germany's Andre Lange.
Russia's Team 1 (Dmitry Abramovich, Roman Oreshnikov, Sergey Prudnikov and Dmitry Stepushkin) is ranked ninth after the first run, followed by the Team 3 (Evgeny Popov, Alexey Kireev, Denis Moiseychenkov, Andrey Yurkov).
MOSCOW, February 27 (RIA Novosti)
